Ninjas in Pyjamas are one of one of the most established CS:GO teams, and had a long and dominating hold of the title as the best team in the world, however, with more teams rising to the challenge they are no longer considered the best team, if you are unfamiliar with the history of Ninjas in Pyjamas I would suggest you read this to get a better understanding of the team. However, I will only focus on the team after allu joining. allu was not the only Finn that was signed as his former teammate natu was acquired as a coach for the team.

They were unable to qualify for ESL ESEA Pro League, and one could argue that the level of the tournament would have been higher if it hadn’t been 4 spots for Europe and 4 spots for North America, as I would put Keyd Stars, Luminosity Gaming and Counter Logic Gaming in the murky waters of rank 10-20. Also during the time they tried having GeT_RiGhTas an ingame leader.

At FACEIT 2015 Stage 2 Finals at DreamHack Valencia they got a tough group with both Team SoloMid and FNATIC. They first battled the Danes, but lost 13:16 (Mirage), but beat Liquid 16:6 (Dust2), 16:10 (Cache). In the group decider match they faced FNATIC who only managed to win due to olofmeister almost dropping 40 kills on Train, and the match ended 16:14 (Train), 16:14 (Mirage) to FNATIC.

ThoughtsWhile the Ninjas haven’t won a big tournament for quite some time they have for the most part reached the finals, and if they were unable to do so it was mainly due to meeting one of the strongest opponents before the finals. As their opponents grew stronger, and Ninjas in Pyjamas didn’t adapt to their opponents, the style that worked so well-before when the opposition was weaker, but also when f0rest and friberg were boasting more kills, is no longer enough if you want to compete with the best. Gone are the days where you simply could point f0rest in the direct of your enemy and he would drop them like flies, and when they first brought in natu as a coach I thought that it would help them develop their lackluster tactical side, but so far they haven’t really changed much as they still rely heavily on winning their aimduels. This is also reflected in the matchups against EnVyUs who aim wise was superior to the Ninjas, and in the majority of the encounters that proved to be the winning ingredient as there was no change in the Ninjas approach. They are still a top team, but they are no longer among the four best teams, as while the other teams have adapted, changed and overtaken the Ninjas they have only changed a player, and while allu is doing a good job he cannot fix their core problem, which from my point of view is that they are extremely limited in their gameplay as they usually have a default for a map, and if it works great they can win the map, but if it doesn’t work they will keep doing it until they lose the match. In terms of map pool I would say that their strong maps would be: Dust2, Train, and their decent maps being: Cache, Inferno and Mirage. This leaves Cobblestone and Overpass as their weakest maps, and Overpass being their absolute worst. The problem for their map pool is my opinion that against EnVyUs, FNATIC and Team SoloMid there isn’t a map I would say ‘They are most likely going to win this’, as all 3 are strong on Cache, Inferno, Dust2, and with how the map system works at this major where the last map is randomly selected they stand in a situation where they can either ban their opponents strongest map and in that case they can end with Cobblestone and Overpass, or they can ban one of those and maybe end up with one anyway due to the randomized pick. However, if every member of the team is at their peak they can win almost any map, but the likelihood of that it that is going to happen is close to none-existing. I don’t think that we will see a Ninjas in Pyjamas in the final, as the field is too strong for them to have a chance with the performance they have put in over the past couple of months, and that they pretty consistently been beaten by EnVyUs, FNATIC, Natus Vincere and Team SoloMid, then I think that they should be happy with a 3-4 placing, but with mousesports, Cloud9 and Kinguin attending as well they might have to be contend with a 5-8th spot.

Unless the Ninjas have been putting a lot of effort into their tactical game approach, which they should as why else would you get a coach in, I don’t think they can aim their way through Cologne. However, with the amount of time that natu have been with them I haven’t seen much of a change, and I cannot recall against who they played, but they played a Mirage game where their execute was de-synchronized with a couple of seconds, as there were no-one to capitalize on the molotov they threw to clear a position, and the flash from their flashbang effect had worn of when the first man entered the site. It might have been an anomaly, but when playing against teams who have the same rawr aim, or even higher than you, then the only way to give yourself an advantage is to push coordinated as a unit. I do look forward to watching them play, and maybe be surprised by their gameplay, however, I still don’t think they got reasonable chance of getting into the final.